West Texas A&M University made headlines in August when it announced an ambitious goal: eliminating most textbook-related costs. However, months after the university's initial announcement, President Walter Wendler acknowledged that the plan was too ambitious and said it would apply only to freshman and sophomore courses. In an email last month, Wendler said he planned to achieve this goal by "doing everything possible to reduce student costs and assisting faculty in finding teaching resources they find acceptable."

One of the options the university is exploring to eliminate textbook costs is shifting to open access materials.

Open Educational Resources (OER) are in the public domain or use open licenses that allow free use and modification. A growing number of institutions are exploring using these materials to replace expensive textbooks.

Jenny Parks, vice president of policy and research at the Midwestern Higher Education Compact, said that because OER can lower the cost of taking courses, they also help improve student performance, especially for low-income or underrepresented students, thereby reducing student withdrawals or failures. The organization is a consortium of 12 states aimed at improving student success rates.

"Anything that interrupts that process, we know on a large scale leads to lower completion rates and lower student success," Parks said. "When students enroll in OER courses, they can take more courses each semester, allowing them to progress faster academically and complete courses at higher rates."

However, shifting to OER requires time and effort. Without proper staffing, expertise, and financial support, it can place a heavier burden on faculty.

"Most faculty are already overworked in most places," Parks said. "Asking them to do more without providing release time—and financial support, instructional design support, library support—that's a heavy burden."

OER momentum grows

Wendler insisted in the email that despite the challenges, moving away from textbooks is entirely feasible. Parks noted that in fact, there are millions of OER, and these materials have gained momentum in the United States over the past five years.

Parks believes the turning point for OER came after a 2016 survey of Florida college students was released, which found that expensive textbooks affected students' academics. About two-thirds of students reported not purchasing required textbooks for courses; more than a quarter of students withdrew from courses due to textbook costs.

Meanwhile, Nicole Allen, director of open education at the advocacy nonprofit SPARC, said in an email that there is evidence that OER can reduce student costs, improve completion rates, and increase the number of credits students take each semester. She noted that using open materials on a larger scale amplifies these effects.

Today, Parks said, OER can be found through institutional repositories and metasearch engines (which combine results from multiple search engines). The Open Education Network maintains a large repository. Rice University's nonprofit OpenStax also offers many open textbooks.

Allen also mentioned that in recent years, many campuses—such as Montgomery College in Maryland and Tidewater Community College in Virginia—have focused on offering courses or programs that can be completed without purchasing textbooks. The University System of Georgia's eCore program provides OER in online general education courses that transfer credits to 21 institutions in the state.

Institutions are also collaborating, such as a community portal sharing open textbooks and course materials, with participants including more than twenty historically Black colleges and universities. Additionally, there are efforts to build OER in high-demand fields, such as Chippewa Valley Technical College's Open RN project, which created a new set of resources for nursing students.

Academic libraries, including those at Michigan State University and Ohio State University, are also actively involved in producing OER materials, Allen said in the email.

The momentum of OER is supported by government funding. In 2018, the U.S. Department of Education began providing federal funding for higher education projects to create or expand the use of open textbooks, saving students money. According to SPARC, to date, the Open Textbooks Pilot Program has awarded 16 grants totaling $47 million to projects aimed at developing OER and expanding their use in higher education.

"There's a lot of good stuff out there now, and I think with appropriate investment, we can create more," Parks said.

What challenges exist?

West Texas A&M University President Wendler acknowledged that finding alternatives to textbooks requires effort and said the administration is working with the Faculty Senate to address workload issues. The university is taking steps to determine how many courses do not require students to purchase course materials and is exploring other no-cost or low-cost materials available to faculty. Wendler also said the university is working to find cost-effective partnerships to purchase discounted materials for faculty and students.

But Wendler believes student debt, especially when students leave without earning a degree, is a "serious" and primary issue facing public higher education. He argued that the hard work is worth it. "I am proud to say that most faculty at WT are working hard to fulfill the educational mission," Wendler said.

However, faculty have raised objections to Wendler, citing the no-textbook plan in a no-confidence resolution in April. The resolution also criticized other actions taken by Wendler, accusing him of making anti-LGBTQ remarks, restricting free speech, and preventing potential students from entering four-year universities.

Additionally, Parks said it is relatively difficult for faculty to find the set of resources they need. On one hand, the work of adapting open materials for college courses is often underfunded, and institutions often lack staff dedicated to OER adoption. This work typically falls under other duties of staff and often becomes more of a "passion project," Parks said.

But Parks said the challenges professors face when shifting to OER are not insurmountable. Allen said no one expects every faculty member to create their own OER from scratch; assigning a textbook from Rice University's OpenStax is similar to choosing one from a traditional publisher—it has an ISBN, and bookstores can stock print versions.

"Whenever a professor decides to switch from one textbook to another, it requires some effort, but the fact that a textbook is 'open' does not in itself create more work," Allen said.

Allen also said that while developing or customizing their own open resources takes time, SPARC often hears that this extra effort pays off, providing students with a more engaging and accessible experience. "It's important that institutions support the work faculty do," she added.

Allen said any major change at a university involves changing policies and procedures as well as culture. University leaders need to handle such changes in consultation with stakeholders, especially faculty and students. "If the goal is to transition the entire institution to open materials, it's important to respect academic freedom and ensure faculty receive the support they need to choose or develop materials that best serve students," she said.

Ultimately, Parks said, it is unlikely that higher education institutions will replace all traditionally licensed, commercially produced learning materials with OER. There will always be very niche markets, or topics for which openly licensed, free or cheaper materials for students have not yet been created. "I don't think we'll ever see 100% replacement," Parks said, "but some schools have come very close, and that's what they're aiming for."